Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is out now in early access with newly roguelike dungeons and more puzzling inventories

It’s been seven years since the first Moonlighter, and in all that time, I’ve somehow never noticed that the title is a reference to sleepless penury. My mind jumped to the association of moonlight with magic and romance, skimming clean over the less enchanting sense of “moonlighting” as working a second job after dark. Luckily, this knowledge has dawned on me just in time to softly kneecap my enthusiasm for Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, which launches into early access today, and appears quite a bit different from its predecessor.

What’s the same? Well, it’s still a real-time action-RPG about having a second job as a village storekeeper. By day, you stock shelves with potions, etcetera and work the till. By night, you head into the catacombs to replenish your wares.

What’s changed? Well, it’s now a 3D game with an angled third-person camera, rather than a top-down pixelganza. They’ve also moved away from the original Zelda or Binding Of Isaac-style dungeon format. Instead of an expanse of rooms that seal you in till you’ve killed all their monsters, you’ll be picking from branching paths as in a roguelike such as Hades.

The inventory management side has been re-puzzlified with (for example) new items that consume adjacent items, perhaps gaining in strength for every treasure they eat. The shop management stuff is more elaborate, with new modifiers to boost the value of otherwise homely goods.

Developers Digital Sun and publishers 11-Bit aren’t sure how long it’ll be in early access. The current version includes three dungeon biomes with their own enemies, around 120 relics, four main weapons, and roughly 100 shop and dungeon perks. The final version will have more environments, bosses, loot, NPCs, quests and story stuff, plus expanded shop systems, events and customisation options. All this plus the customary bugfixes and general improvements.

Read more on Steam. I enjoyed the first Moonlighter, and I’m uncertain about the new dungeons and visual direction, but the inventory and shop enhancements sound worthwhile on paper. To circle back to my intro, I’m a bit concerned that I can be persuaded to overlook exploitative or precarious working conditions if they’re presented to me in fluffy fantasy language. Please do not start referring to staff cuts as Ye Olde Layoffs, publishers.